Choosing a Travel Guide

By Christina VanGinkel

If you are not sure where you want to take your next vacation, or are concerned about what the vacation of your choice might cost you, or, if it will be the vacation, you think it will, purchasing a few travel related books on the destinations you have in mind might help you clarify your decision. Travel guides, both unofficial, and those put together by tourism centers can each offer you valid information and details about the places that interest you.

These guides commonly include a variety of information such as room rates and available amenities, but they can also offer a unique glimpse into what your own personal vacation may offer you, thus providing you with the needed information to build your itinerary and budget accordingly. If you have decided to go to a major amusement park, such as Walt Disney World for example, a guide may be able to provide you with a glimmer of a look at what the length of time will be to stand in line for some of the rides, depending on what time of the year you will be visiting. On the other hand, tips on how to cut that time dramatically down, enabling you to get more enjoyment out of your trip than all the hours wasted standing in line. A travel information guide can provide you with information on hotels that are not directly associated with the park also. If you have only requested information from the parks tourist center, hotel information will routinely be just for those places directly associated with the park itself, even though you may have other interests while visiting the area, which would make a stay in a hotel outside of the complex just as convenient as one right there. Information on package rates, and what the differences are between them, and a look at attractions outside of the park itself may even be included.

Different travel guides will offer different types of information, so pay attention to the contents when choosing and pick accordingly. Some may offer travel information in addition to destination information. If you have never traveled by train, plane, or boat, whatever the recommended form of travel happens to be to get to your destination, acquiring a guide that includes information like this might also be a good idea. Another area that many specific travel guides will offer information on is how to handle types of scenarios that may come up often in the destination of your choice, such as what the tipping practices commonly are, how much, who to tip, and when. Where to find the best nightlife activity, where the best shopping or shopping bargains are to be had, even the best wedding chapels if that happens to be a feature of the place you are visiting, can also be found in a travel guide. A travel guide cannot ever take the place of having your own in person pal to take you all around to all the best spots, bring you to the best restaurants, and introduce you to the very best entertainment that a place may have to offer, but the right guide or two can come awfully close. In addition, all without the added hassle of following someone around on a pre set itinerary. A good travel guide or two can make your vacation into everything you ever thought it would and should be. They can provide you with the tools of knowledge enjoy your vacation to its fullest potential without having to worry if you missed something, or could have done better with a meal choice or a place to stay. A good travel guide has the prospective to be that inclusive friend, one of the locals per se, that we all wish we could bring along or meet up with upon our arrival, but not have to take out with us on our excursions once we have arrived at our ultimate destination.

The information is usually very specific to the place you will be visiting, and will be extremely time sensitive, so it is important to purchase as new a guide as you can find. Even if you have been to a destination before, if it has been a year or two, it may be to your benefit to pick up the newest guide to alert you to any changes and to help point out any new and interesting attractions that might not have been around the last time you visited.